We can now say that we are tandem bicycle racers.

That's right, Joanne and I rode in the 2005 Co-Motion Classic.

We were able to do this because of the new "C" division this year. "C" riders are tandem teams that have never raced before. Now I have done some long distance rides before, but none of them are considered a race. So, Joanne and I decided to join in on the fun. The "C" division has just two stages; a 7.5 mile time trial and a 18 mile road race.

Now you would expect that we would train for this race. Nope. I just continued with my long distance training and Joanne kept riding with The Salem Bicycle Club. Well, we did do a little bit of time trial practice on the Wednesday before the race.

On Saturday, we woke up early and drove down to Cottage Grove for the time trial. At the race meeting, we learned that there were just eight teams including us and they ranged from a team who purchased their first tandem just two months before the race to a young team with shaved legs and aero-helmets. But luck of the draw (?), Joanne and I were to be the first out of the gate.

We had an hour before our departure time, so we decided to slowly ride the course to get a feel for it. It started near the edge of town and headed westward up into the foothills. After four miles, the inclined steepened and I shifted into our largest cog. The chain dropped down in between the cassette and the spokes pulling the dérailleur in toward the wheel. This cause the dérailleur hanger to bend 30 degrees or more. In short, we broke the bike.

I can not describe the depth of despair that we felt. There was no way we could fix the bike in time to make our start time in the time trial. We could not ride in the time trial. We could only load up the tandem and head back to Salem and hopefully the local bike shop could fix it.

An hour later, we were standing in The Bike Peddler watching Brian take a hammer to our dérailleur hanger. I could not watch and excused myself to the rest room. Went I came back, Brain was fine tuning the bike. It was fixed! We took it out for a 25 mile ride into the east Salem hills and it ran perfect!

On Sunday, we drove back down to Cottage Grove for the road race. As per the rules, we were given the time of the slowest tandem, plus three minutes. We were now in last place, 18 minutes back. Well, we never thought that we could win.

The eight of us started the road race. The leaders were the young couple on the Burley, followed by two tandems captioned by "racer" dad with their children as stokers. A set of nine year old twin girls were the stokers for one team (one rode the time trial and the other rode the road race). A five year old son the stoker of the other parent/child tandem. The other teams were older folks, like Joanne and I.

The course was around Cottage Grove Reservoir, and was mostly flat except for one small hill on the back side followed by shape descent and then a tight, left hand turn (posted at 15 mph). However, the largest hill was just before the finishing line, which was at the top of this hill. After the start, we rode as a group, except for the slowest team which dropped off right away.

This was our first experience of racing and I must admit, it was quite different and it was a lot of fun. Our goal was to finish no slower than fifth place. To achieve this, we intended to ride in the pack, never leading, until the final sprint and then let her rip! The Burley had the same plan. They covered every break and never lead on the first lap.

The first test was the hill on the back side of the course. It broke the pack in two and Joanne and I found ourselves in the lead group! This proved to us that we could climb with the rest of the teams. The second test was the finishing line hill. Again, we stay with the lead group. On the second lap, the groups came together. At the far end of the lake, at a hard left had corner, a tandem attached and we found ourselves dropped off of the lead by several lengths. Joanne and I worked hard to catch up as if we got dropped now, we would be out of contention. We managed to claw our way up to the lead group. Then we came to the back side hill. Again, there was an attack, and we stayed with the lead group, but we went anaerobic to do so. I decided not to race down the hill, but let the 15 mph turn regroup us. This plan worked and we were fifth coming out of the corner, but I blew a shift and we spun our peddles coming out of the turn. This was enough to drop us off of the lead group by 100 feet or more. I decided not to work hard to get back on, but to slowly bridge back in time for the final hill.

To my surprise, the official's car passed us! They must have thought that we would not be able to bridge back. I took this as an insult! At the corner at the foot of the hill, Joanne and I were just a few feet back. We took the corner hard and passed the official's car and then started up the hill proper. We peddled as hard as we could and we caught one team on the lower section of the hill. We continued our efforts to catch the next team which was the father/son team. The son turned around and saw us coming and yelled "Full steam ahead Dad; here they come!" If I was not working so hard, I would have laughed. We caught and passed them to take third! From the depths of despair to the heights of elation!

I would highly recommend the Co-Motion Classic to anyone who every thought about trying out their “racing” legs. It was a real blast.

Posted 9:08 PM by John Henry